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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

Gl  FT    OF 

Class 

A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  WELFARE  OF  DEAF 

CHILDREN  AND  THE   DUTY  OF  THE 

MEDICAL  PROFESSION. 


CHARLES  SMITH  TURNBULL,  M.  D.,  PH.  D. 

OCULIST  AND  AURIST  TO  THE  GERMAN   HOSPITAL,  PHILADELPHIA.     ONE  OF  THB 

TRUSTEES  OF  THE  "  HOME  FOR  THE  TRAINING  IN    SPEECH    OF 

DEAF  CHILDREN  BEFORE  THEY  ARE  OF  SCHOOL 

AGE,"  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 


READ  BEFORE 

FIRST  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  IN  AMERICA 

ON 

THE  WELFARE  OF  THE  CHILD 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C,  MARCH   lo  TO  17,  X«oR 


w^ 


A  Consideration  of  the  Welfare  of  Deaf  Children 
AND  THE  Duty  of  the  Medical  Profession. 


BY  Charles  S.  turnbull,  m.  d. 


Madam  President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  and 
Delegates  to  the  National  Congress  on  the  Welfare  of  the 
Child: 
Apart  from  the  honor  I  feel  in  addressing  such  a  represen- 
tative and  enthusiastic  body  as  this  assembly,  I  feel  it  a  great 
pleasure  in  pleading  for  the  welfare  of  deaf  children.  This 
subject  was  most  near  and  dear  to  my  father,  Laurence 
Turnbull,  M.  D.,  whose  hfe  work  was  the  practice  and  teach- 
ing of  Otology.  A  specialty  he,  in  the  old  time  way,  built 
out  of  a  large  general  practice.  At  the  commencement  of  his 
career  he  espoused  the  cause  of  teaching  deaf  children  the 
so-called  *'oral  method,"  particularly  as  advocated  by  the 
Misses  Garrett  of  Philadelphia.  In  the  first  edition  of  Dr. 
Tumbull's  work  entitled,  ''Diseases  of  the  Ear,"  he  devoted 
a  chapter  to  "deaf -mutism,"  which  was  a  most  comprehen- 
sive resume  of  this  interesting  subject.  It  recorded  its  his- 
tory and  the  results  of  his  large  experience,  detailed  accounts 
of  his  visits  to  the  schools  of  this  country  and  abroad,  and 
concluded  with  an  impartial  review  of  all  known  methods, 
as  early  as  the  year  1871,  and  he  quoted  the  following  itali- 
cized paragraph  to  illustrate  Miss  Garrett's  method:* 

''Great  results  have  already  been  gained  through  the  Oral 
Method,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  greater  and  better  results 
than  any  already  obtained  await  us  in  the  future,  as  the 
method  becomes  more  widely  and  more  strictly  and  intelli- 
gently applied.  The  oral  pupil  who  has  the  least  amount  of 
intelligible  speech  and  of  lip  reading  compared  with  his 
fellow  oral  pupils,  has  just  that  much  advantage  over  the 
most  expert  maker  of  arbitrary  signs  and  the  manual  alpha- 
bet, which  are  sure  to  be  as  unintelligible  to  the  general 
public  as  our  speech  is  to  the  sign  maker. 

*  Directions  to  Parents  of  Deaf  Children.    By  Mary  S.  Garrett. 


180928 


''The  more  perfect  we  can  make  the  speech  of  the  deaf,  and 
the  more  skilful  we  can  train  them  to  be  in  lip  reading,  and 
the  greater  the  amoimt  of  language  we  can  teach  them,  the 
happier  and  more  independent  they  will  be." 

As  a  student  I  could  not  help  but  be  impressed  with  my 
father's  enthusiasm  and  grow  up  with  a  fondness  for  the 
subject  we  have  under  consideration,  and  you  will,  I  know,, 
excuse  a  pardonable  pride  and  concede  my  deep  interest  as 
justified.  My  wish  is  to  arouse  a  universal  interest  concern- 
ing the  education  of  deaf  c^ldren  and  ask  your  co-operation 
in  the  welfare  of  the  deaf  child  whose  early  training  from  this 
time  must  be  in  visible  speech  in  but  one  direction.  I  cannot 
help  but  feel  a  hesitancy  in  the  simple  statement  of  facts 
which  it  seems  to  me  must  sound  commonplace  to  some  of 
you,  because  I  feel  assured  that  everybody  who  has  been 
interested  for  any  length  of  time  in  the  education  and  wel- 
fare of  deaf  children  must  already  be  familiar  with  the  meth- 
ods about  which  I  want  to  tell  you. 

Pantomime  plays  no  part  in  the  game  of  "speech  imita- 
tion" we  are  to  champion.  Given  a  deaf  child  (infant)  the 
first  query  suggests  the  all-important  question  "Is  this  or 
that  infant  deaf ?"  No!  Emphatically  no!  Why  not  give 
it  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  keep  talking  to  it  straight  ahead, 
frown  down  anybody  who  instead  of  speaking  at  it,  dares  to 
make  a  sign.  Perhaps  it  may  only  be  "tongue-tied."  A 
rare  condition,  but  popular!  Perhaps  the  child  has  defective 
eyesight  and  does  not  see  well  enough  to  imitate  speech. 
Perhaps  the  child  has  congenital  occlusion,  some  foreign 
substance  closes  the  auditory  canals  or  scar  tissue  (cica- 
trices) in  its  throat.  Perhaps  the  child  has  a  so-called  "  cold  " 
or  influenza  or  gotten  along  to  dentition  time.  Perhaps  the 
child  has  adenoids  with  or  without  enlarged  tonsils.  (At 
this  juncture  permit  me  to  pause  and  say  that  in  the  case  of 
'^  mouth  breathing  children^'  our  duty  is  almost  as  imperative 
as  in  the  case  of  the  deaf  for  obvious  well  known  reasons.) 
Perhaps  the  child  has  recently  suffered  with  some  exanthema- 
tous  disease.  Perchance,  it  has  acquired  or  inherited  some, 
so-called,  scrofulous  disease.  Many  supposed  reasons  will 
suffice  to  make  us  doubt  permanent  deafness.  Therefore, 
take  it  for  granted  that  the  child  hears  more  or  less  and  keep 
on  talking  to  it.     The  organs  of  speech  are  ready  and  at 


your  service.  Keep  up  the  fight,  nothing  daunted,  because, 
if  you  do,  the  child's  education  has  been  started.  The  child 
is  not  necessarily  dumb  if  it  should  be  deaf!  A  child  possess- 
ed with  normal  ears  and  hearing,  who  has  never  heard  nor 
seen  speech,  will  just  as  surely  be  dumb  as  the  deaf  child 
who  has  never  been  trained  to  see  or  imitate  speech. 

In  training  a  deaf  child  full  faith  must  always  be  retained. 
Deception  once  practiced  is  fatal  to  discipline.  When  a 
child  once  loses  faith  or  has  been  deceived  it  will  dread  strang- 
ers, especially  the  doctor,  and  all  influence  in  the  way  of 
discipline  will  be  lost.  Firm  discipline  must  always  be 
maintained,  not  only  for  the  good  of  the  child  but  for  the 
comfort  of  the  parents  or  teacher,  both  in  every  instance  be- 
ing the  undoubted  gainers. 

Satisfy  yourself  that  it  sees  your  face  in  a  good  light. 
Children  are  mimics.  Encourage  every  effort  to  speak,  and 
after  a  fair,  patient  trial  always  call  your  physician  and  if  he 
is  imable  to  assist  you  in  solving  the  question,  "Is  the  child 
deaf?''  special  counsel  must  be  called  to  solve  the  questions 
I  have  suggested,  and  secure  intelligent  advice. 

All  deaf  children  with  good  eyesight  can,  with  extremely 
rare  exceptions,  and  ought  to  be  taught  to  talk  and  can  learn 
speech  reading,  provided  their  parents,  care-takers  and 
teachers  know  how  to  guide  and  instruct  them.  When 
parents  discover  an  infant  to  be  deaf,  they  should  continue 
to  talk  to  it,  just  as  every  mother  does  a  hearing  baby  when  it 
is  learning  to  talk;  she  does  not  use  motions  to  it  because  it 
has  not  yet  commenced  to  understand  her  language,  but  she 
repeats  over  and  over  again,  to  it,  the  pet  names  she  calls 
it,  tells  it  again  and  again  to  "say  papa,"  "say  ma-ma,"  etc., 
etc.,  until  it  learns  to  understand  and  then  to  imitate  her 
words.  She  is  keen  to  discover,  encourage  and  correct  its 
first  attempts  at  articulation. 

The  child  should  be  strictly  trained  to  depend  entirely  upon 
speech  reading  and  that  alone,  and  everyone  with  whom 
a  deaf  child  comes  in  contact  should  talk  at  it,  i.  e.,  to  it; 
and  encourage  and  aid  it  to  articulate.  Deaf  babies  begin  to 
say  "ma-ma"  just  as  hearing  babies  do,  but  as  a  rule  it  is  not 
encouraged.  If  it  were  and  the  child  properly  guided  to 
further  articulation,  it  would  soon  talk  and  evince  every 
sympton  of  joy  and  delight. 


The  Hon.  John  Hitz,  Superintendent  of  the  Volta  Bureau, 
says:  ''The  fact  is  well  established  that  defective  auditory 
organs  are  distinct  and  as  independent  from  those  of  speech 
as  they  are  from  those  of  vision,  and  if  people  in  general  knew 
that  they  would  more  likely  disassociate  the  organs  of  speech 
from  those  of  hearing  as  fully  as  they  generally  do  the  defects 
of  sight  from  those  of  speech,  and  realize  that  if  properly 
taught  the  deaf  would  organically  as  readily  be  able  to  speak 
a^  are  the  blind." 

Director  Frederick  Werner,  of  Stade,  Germany,  says: 
"  Develop  speech  in  the  deaf  child  in  such  a  way  that  his  THINK- 
ING may  as  soon  as  possible  he  based  upon  his  speech  sensa- 
tions." Thus  formulated  we  have  a  fundamental  principle 
in  which  is  found  "  the  long  needed  and  sought  for  psychological 
basis  of  the  oral  method." 

For  instance,  a  case  on  record  where  a  mother,  finding  her 
boy  of  two  years  old  did  not  talk,  and  after  having  been  told 
by  a  physician  that  he  was  totally  deaf,  talked  to  him  con- 
stantly, knowing  nothing  of  methods.  She  treated  him  and 
talked  to  him  as  a  normal  child,  with  the  result  that  he  not 
only  has  a  natural  voice,  but  is  also  in  every  other  way, 
except  hearing,  a  natural  child.  He  is  now  five  years  and 
five  months  of  age,  and  is  able  to  read  speech  from  the  lips 
of  strangers.  This  boy's  clever  mother  stated  nothing 
angered  her  more  than  to  see  any  one  use  motions  in  talking 
to  her  child. 

Another  case  well  known  to  Miss  Garrett  was  that  of  a  girl 
who  was  about  nine  years  old  when  she  was  discovered.  She 
was  a  so-called  "deaf-mute,"  whose  parents  had  always  been 
wise  enough  to  talk  to  her  (at  her)  from  infancy.  She  under- 
stood speech,  talked  and  was  able  to  take  part  in  all  ordinary 
conversation. 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  how  profligate  it  is  of  care- 
takers of  the  human  body  to  neglect  physical  developement. 
In  these  days  of  athletics  and  the  strenuous  life,  it  is  almost 
an  insult  to  any  intelligent  person  to  suggest  that  imless  a 
muscle  be  used  and  put  to  work  it  will  waste,  atrophy  and 
soon  be  useless.  This  is,  alas!  too  frequently  and  painfully 
evident  in  cases  of  neglected  injuries  and  fractures  of  the 
limbs,  etc.,  which  have  been  put  up  in  splints  or  plaster,  and 
have  been  allowed  to  remain  without  any  motion  until  such 


time  as  the  dressings  were  removed.  Many  a  Umb  in  such 
neglected  cases  hangs  stiff  and  useless  for  want  of  proper 
care,  of  massage,  friction  and  passive  motion — in  short,  ex- 
ercise. Why  should  we  not  expect  the  same  to  occur  in  the 
muscles  of  the  organs  of  speech?  Unless  developed  and  put 
to  u^e  they  degenerate. 

The  oculist  has  no  difficulty  in  convincing  the  parent  of 
a  "cross-eyed  child,^'  that  simple  lack  of  use  of  the  deviating 
eye  is  the  cause  of  every  case  of  squint.  If  one  of  a  pair  of 
eyes  is  not  good  enough  for  associate  use  with  its  fellow, 
"  Nature  "  abandons  it,  sets  it  in  or  out,  and  keeps  it  there,  out 
of  the  way,  so  that  a  blurred  or  indistinct  image  does  not 
embarrass  that  of  the  better  fellow-eye.  If  one  of  a  pair^^of 
eyes  be  sightless  there  is  nothing  to  hold  it  in  place  on  account 
of  lack  of  fixation  and  the  stronger  of  the  two  muscles  pulls 
it  in  or  out.  Nature  knows  better  than  to  attempt  to  fuse  a 
blurred  or  indistinct  image  with  a  good  one.  Correctly  fit 
and  adjust  spectacles,  and  the  unused  weak  eye,  with  its 
undeveloped  muscles,  at  first  refuses  to  work  with  its  fellow ; 
although  later,  when  properly  corrected,  this  once  poorer 
eye  works  equally  well.  Hence  the  necessity  for  putting 
infants'  eyes  in  order  and  at  work,  exercising  the  muscles  at 
once. 

A  further  consideration  of  the  welfare  of  deaf  children 
brings  the  student  to  a  study  of  the  laws  of  inheritance, 
heredity  and  consanguinity.  Here  is  an  awful  pause!  If 
such  a  student  be  a  medical  man  and  the  added  consideration 
of  the  diseases  which  cause  deafness  be  recognized  as  another 
factor  which  might  have  aided  in  the  actual  foundation  of  a 
deaf -variety  of  the  human  race,  we  of  the  medical  profession 
must  be  up  and  doing,  lest  forgetful  of  the  Hippocratic 
oath  we  be  charged  with  neglect  of  duty.  We  have  the 
important  duty  of  guiding  and  instructing  parents  of  deaf 
infants  and  children.  Pause  and  reflect  a  moment  when 
I  tell  you  that  one  child  is  deaf  out  of  every  fifteen  himdred. 
Dr.  Alexander  Graham  Bell  tells  us  that  over  fifty  per  cent, 
of  twenty-two  hundred  and  sixty-two  congenital  deaf-mutes 
had  deaf-mute  relatives  and  even  thirteen  per  cent,  of  the 
deaf  from  other  (accidental)  causes  had  deaf  relatives. 

The  family  physician,  autocrat  as  he  doubtless  is,  can 
wield  a  tremendous  influence  with  his  adoring  families  of 


8 

patients.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  medical  profession  to  prevent, 
if  for  hygienic  reasons,  the  segregation,  as  a  class,  of  any 
and  all  children,  much  more  so  of  deaf  children,  who  must  be 
brought  up  under  the  environment  of  homes  or  in  its  home. 
We  must  retain  normal  environment  as  nearly  as  possible 
during  the  period  of  education.  If  children  must  leave  home 
for  special  training,  let  it  be  at  an  age  when  they  would  ordi- 
narily commence  to  talk.  There  is  no  sense  so  variable  in 
its  development  as  speech.  Some  children  begin  to  talk 
at  twelve  to  eighteen  months,  others  not  until  after  the 
second  year.  Some  pronounce  distinctly  at  three  years  and 
others  not  until  nine  or  ten. 

C.  G.  Pearse,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Milwaukee,  Wis., 


"A  great  hindrance  in  the  teaching  of  deaf  children  has 
been  the  fact  that  they  began  to  learn  language  and  speech 
when  they  came  to  school,  several  years  after  normal  children 
acquire  these  accomplishments.  For  this  reason  they  are 
likely  to  master  these  arts  less  perfectly,  and  to  be  Tater  in 
getting  an  elementary  education  than  our  normal  children. 
For  a  few  years  a  departure  in  Pennsylvania,  ''The  Home 
for  Training  Deaf  Children  in  Speech  Before  They  are  of 
School  Age,"  Philadelphia,  has  attracted  marked  attention. 
Into  this  school  deaf  children  are  taken  for  instruction  at 
age  when  normal  children  are  learning  language  and  speech 
at  home.  Experience  here  has  shown  that  deaf  children 
may  in  effect  be  almost  as  well  grounded  in  language  and 
speech  by  the  time  they  reach  the  usual  school  age,  as  are 
their  more  fortunate  mates  who  have  all  their  senses.  The 
lessons  taught  by  this  school  are  not  unlikely  to  prove  the 
greatest  step  forward  in  the  teaching  of  deaf  children  that 
has  been  taken  since  oral  teaching  was  established." 

"The  public  schools  should  stand  anxious  to  increase  the 
scope  of  their  usefulness,  and  become  so  far  as  they  may,  to 
all  the  children  of  the  state,  the  door  of  opportunity,  as  they 
now  are  to  all  the  normal  children  of  the  State.  That  we 
should  so  order  our  system  of  public  education  that  we  may 
care  not  only  for  the  normal,  but  the  great  majority  of  those 
who  depart  from  the  normal  type,  either  through  lack  of 
some  bodily  power  or  sense,  such  as  sight,  or  hearing,  or 
through  some  intellectual  lack,  where  that  lack  is  not  such 


9 

as  to  render  them  incapable  of  leading  self-directed  lives. 
That  our  search  in  this  direction  should  not  cease  until  we 
have  brought  within  the  magic  circle  of  our  people's  schools 
all  the  classes  of  defective  or  attypical  children,  except  those 
unfitted  by  their  misfortune  to  lead  self-controlled,  self- 
directed  and  self-supporting  lives;  and  have  made  it  possible, 
in  these  schools,  for  them  to  receive  the  special  care  and 
special  edueational  facilities  which  they  require,  while  at 
the  same  time  remaining  in  their  homes  in  the  care  of  father 
and  mother,  in  the  companionship  of  brothers  and  sisters, 
approaching  more  and  more  nearly,  as  their  educational 
years  pass  by,  to  the  normal  type  of  the  society  in  which 
they  must  take  their  places,  tending  less  and  less  to  become 
members  of  a  class  apart,  unseeking  and  unsought  by  their 
normal  fellow  man." 

Mr.  William  Nelson,  Headmaster  of  the  Royal  Schools  for 
the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  Old  Trafford,  Manchester,  England,  on  a 
visit  of  inquiry  to  schools  for  the  Deaf  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  writes  at  length  of  ''The  Home  for  the  Training 
in  Speech  of  Deaf  Children  Before  They  are  of  School  Age." 
He  says:  "This  is  the  school  which  has  excited  my  interest 
for  some  years,  as  its  aims  and  methods  were  so  entirely  new, 
that  I  believe  very  few  teachers  in  England  credited  the 
accounts  that  had  been  given  of  it. 

It  is  composed  of  two  detached  villa  residences,  and  stands 
in  the  middle  of  the  fine  park  just  outside  of  Philadelphia. 

Its  object  is  described  in  the  following  words  by  the  Princi- 
pal, Miss  Garrett:  ''The  fact  that  all  deaf  children,  after 
leaving  school,  must  live  their  Hves  and  earn  their  living 
among  hearing  people,  and  that  heretofore  so  little  has  been 
done  toward  training  them  until  they  were  of  school  age,  had 
induced  us  to  try  teaching  them  to  talk  as  nearly  as  possible 
at  the  natural  age,  and  then  sending  them  to  be  educated 
with  hearing  people,  among  whom,  as  before  said,  they  must 
Hve  their  later  lives." 

The  children  are  received  at  the  age  of  two  and  up  to  eight 
years  old,  but  the  earlier  the  better  after  they  have  reached 
the  age  of  two  years.  Their  attention  is  constantly  directed 
to  the  Ups  of  everybody  who  comes  in  contact  with  them, 
from  the  lowest  servant  in  the  place  to  the  head  of  the  school, 
and  whatever  they  are  doing,  all  through  the  day,  becomes  a 


10 

constant  lesson  in  speech  and  language  and  lip-reading. 
Absolutely  no  signing  is  allowed.  All  this  is  done  under  the 
most  happy  and  delightful  conditions.  Although  the  child^ 
ren,  many  of  them,  come  from  the  very  poorest  homes^ 
they  are  dressed  and  fed  and  treated  from  the  first  like 
little  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  they  play  about^  in  these  two 
beautiful  little  villas,  as  happy  and  well  cared-for  children 
do  in  our  best  EngUsh  homes.  The  whole  feeling  of  the  place 
is  delightfully  nice  and  simple,  and  directed  towards  the 
object  they  have  in  view,  namely,  the  humanizing  and  edu- 
cating of  these  little  children. 

My  first  introduction  to  them  was  at  dinner,  and  this  I 
want  to  describe  fully.  The  children  were  seated  in  groups, 
aroimd  small  tables  for  eight  or  ten,  with  a  couple  of  teachers 
or  more  at  each  table,  and  a  constant  chatter  was  kept  up 
during  the  whole  meal,  in  the  most  natural  way  possible. 
This  was  really  school  in  disguise,  education  around  a  centre 
of  interest,  which  could  not  fail  to  produce  attention  and 
good  results.  I  was  asked  by  quite  small  children,  if  I  would 
Uke  any  bread,  or  any  salt,  or  a  glass  of  water,  and  where  I 
came  from  and  whether  I  liked  America.  They  told  me  that 
Miss  Garrett  had  been  in  England  last  year,  and  numerous 
other  things,  such  as  might  be  said  by  ordinary  hearing 
children  at  the  table.  The  whole  thing  surprised  me  very 
much,  as  I  had  quite  expected  to  find  that  the  accounts  of 
this  method  of  instruction  had  been  exaggerated. 

Miss  Garrett  does  not  teach  abstract  articulation,  but 
commences  at  once  to  teach  speech,  and  in  the  lowest  class, 
with  quite  baby  children  of  four  years  of  age,  such  questions 
as  "  Who  cut  your  hair?"  and  "  What  did  the  barber  do?"  and 
so  on  were  asked  and  answered  quite  readily  in  amazingly - 
natural  speech.  All  through  the  school  this  method  of  in- 
stiUing  the  language  of  early  childhood  is  followed;  the  great- 
est possible  freedom  is  allowed,  and  no  series  of  set  lessons 
or  time  tables  is  adhered  to.  I  spent  two  days  in  examining 
and  looking  into  the  working  of  this  delightful  school,  and 
the  impression  I  got  was  that  it  was  on  the  right  lines  un- 
doubtedly, if  the  aim  of  deaf-mute  education  is  to  give  speech 
and  lip-reading  in  such  a  natural  way  as  will  readily  be  ac- 
cepted and  understood  by  the  general  public.  Miss  Garrett, 
in  order  that  I  might  follow  up  her  idea,  that  after  the  Ian- 


11 

guage  difficulty  had  been  solved  for  the  deaf,  and  natural' 
everyday  speech  given,  that  they  should  be  transferred  to 
ordinary  schools  for  the  purposes  of  education  proper,  very 
kindly  invited  a  number  of  her  old  pupils  to  meet  me  at 
supper  next  evening.  The  boy  who  sat  next  to  me  was  at  a 
grammar  school,  and  he  told  me  he  was  intending  to  be  an 
engineer.  They  were  all  doing  exceedingly  well  at  school,  as 
their  reports  plainly  showed,  and  as  I  could  readily  imderstand 
from  their  fluency  and  accuracy  in  the  use  of  everyday  speech. 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  giving  them  a  short  lesson  after  supper 
on  some  birds'  eggs,  which  some  of  them  had  brought.  They 
were  easy  to  teach,  and,  what  is  very  unusual  with  many 
of  the  orally-taught  deaf,  the  work  could  proceed  quite  rapid^ 

One  of  the  secrets  of  this  success  is  no  doubt  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  children  never  go  home  for  holidays  during  the 
first  six  years  of  instruction,  which  means  that  the  continuity 
of  speech  training  is  unbroken.  I  have  no  doubt  the  ad- 
vantage of  that  is  quite  clear  to  all  teachers,  who  have  experi- 
enced the  disastrous  results  of  a  long  holiday  away  from 
school,  often  in  a  wretched  home,  where  the  influences  are 
entirely  opposed  to  all  that  goes  on  in  school.  This  is  one 
of  Miss  Garrett's  strong  points,  and  it  shows  with  what  per- 
tinacity she  has  carried  out  her  ideas  and  fought  the  question 
through  in  order  to  secure  her  ends,  both  in  legislation,  with 
the  parents,  and,  unfortunately,  with  teachers. 

I  believe  that  the  influence  of  this  one  school  in  America 
will  count  for  much  in  the  future.  It  is  already  beginning  to 
tell,  and  there  are  signs  in  many  of  the  larger  schools  that 
fresh  ideas  and  new  thoughts  are  in  the  air  in  regard  to  the 
teaching  of  the  deaf.  What  strikes  me,  is  that  with  the 
present  attitude  of  the  "  powers  that  be  "  in  our  own  country,, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  drop  a  lump  of  leaven  like  this  into 
our  midst  at  the  expense  of  the  State.  This  elasticity  applies 
not  only  to  Miss  Garrett's  school  in  America,  but  to  all 
schools  that  I  saw.  Freedom  to  teach  is  given  to  the  school 
by  the  State,  and  freedom  to  invent,  and  adopt,  and  try  new 
methods,  is  given  to  the  teachers  in  the  schools.  Mistakes 
are  made,  but  the  general  gain  is  greater  than  the  loss,  and 
the  deaf  schools  in  America  in  this  respect  honestly  reflect  the 
general  national  spirit  which  allows  the  apprentice  at  the 


12 

bench  to  "have  his  say,"  and  to  use  his  mind  in  everything 
that  touches  his  work.  Fault-finding  is  not  one  of  the  signs 
of  State  control  in  America.  The  money  is  freely  given  and 
freely  expended  in  order  that  the  utmost  may  be  done  for 
the  children  it  is  intended  to  benefit. 

The  general  attitude  of  the  Inspectors  and  the  State  de- 
partment is  one  of  sympathetic  encouragement,  and  the 
teachers  on  the  visit  of  the  Inspectors,  go  on  with  their  work 
with  confidence.  The  rise  of  such  splendid  work  as  Miss 
Garrett's  is  the  outcome  of  this  remarkable  sympathy  on 
the  part  of  the  State." 

When  considering  consanguinity,  Dr.  Alexander  Graham 
Bell*  says,  in  his  more  than  interesting  and  valuable  article 
on  Eugenics:  ''If  there  are  any  conditions  under  which  con- 
sanguineous unions  would  be  a  benefit  to  man  they^  should 
be  made  known  so  as  to  enable  us  to  understand  certainly 
what  conditions  are  beneficial  and  what  harmful  to  the  end 
that  public  opinion  may  be  rightly  guided  in  its  treatment 
of  this  important  subject.  We  have  statistics  which  indi- 
cate very  clearly  that  consanguineous  unions  should  not  be 
contracted  by  defective  persons,  and  the  results  obtained 
by  Dr.  E.  A.  Fay  are  specially  significant  in  this  connection. 
He  shows  that  there  is  a  considerable  liability  to  the  produc- 
tion of  deaf  offspring  where  a  deaf  mute  marries  a  blood 
relative  even  in  cases  where  the  original  deafness  was'  not 
congenital.  The  statistics  of  the  twelfth  census  of  the  United 
States  show  that  at  least  4.5  per  cent,  of  the  deaf  of  the 
country  and  4.5  per  cent,  of  the  blind  are  offspring  of  con- 
sanguineous marriages,  but  we  do  not  know  conclusively 
whether  consanguinity  in  the  parents  produces  the  defective 
condition  or  whether  it  simply  intensifies  a  pre-existing 
tendency  in  the  family.  The  largest  percentage  of  children  of 
cousins  marriages  are  found  among  the  deaf  who  have  deaf 
relatives  (8.8  per  cent.)  and  among  the  blind  (9.5  per  cent.) 
who  have  blind  relatives." 

''If  it  be  true  that  'the  proper  study  of  man  is  man'  no 
higher  or  nobler  subject  of  research  can  be  found.  The 
improvement  of  the  human  race  depends  largely  upon  two 
great  factors,  heredity  and  environment:  and  we  deal  chiefly 
with  the  question  of  heredity. 

•A  Few  Thoughts  Concerning:  Eugenics.  The  National  Geographic  Magazine, 
February,  1908. 


13 

''The  institution  of  marriage  not  only  provides  for  the  pro- 
duction of  offspring  but  for  the  production  of  morahty  in  the 
community  at  large.  This  is  a  powerful  reason  why  we 
should  not  interfere  with  it  any  more  than  possibly  can  be 
helped.  There  are  other  reasons,  however,  arising  from  a 
consideration  of  the  rights  possessed  by  individuals  in  a  free 
community." 

I  wish  in  this  connection  to  draw  your  attention  to  the 
marked  effects  of  voice  culture  in  throat  troubles  and  deaf- 
ness. In  the  latter  case  pronounced  benefit  seems  almost 
invariable  by  means  of  vocal  vibration  of  the  parts  through 
specially  evolved  exercises,  for  the  chest,  posterior  portion 
of  the  throat,  tongue  and  lips.  Every  child  is  receiving  a 
certain  amount  of  voice  culture  at  Miss  Garrett's  Home. 
The  advanced  classes  already  show  marked  improvement, 
not  only  in  their  voices  but  in  their  manner  of  speaking^ 
promptness  of  response  being  particularly  noticeable. 

Miss  M.  S.  Zane,  who  is  devoting  particular  attention  to 
this  special  branch,  tells  me:  In  a  comparatively  short  time 
she  found  not  only  a  marked  improvement  in  articulation, 
but  that  the  child  even  showed  an  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  they  had  found  another  source  of  relief.  Even  in  the 
classes  of  very  young  children,  as  all  classes  are  receiving 
this  training,  they  are  eager  for  this  exercise,  which  is  another 
proof  that  it  is  quite  natural  for  deaf  children  to  use  their 
voices  and  that  they  do  appreciate  every  effort  that  tends 
toward  making  them  like  other  children.  It  is  an  understood 
fact  that  all  organs  and  members  of  the  body  should  be  put 
in  their  normal  condition,  performing  their  natural  functions; 
and  only  when  this  is  accomplished  are  we  the  happier.  Then 
why,  because  the  child  has  been  deprived  of  one  faculty,, 
should  we  permit  it  to  be  deprived  of  the  use  of  others. 

Industrial  Training:  In  our  endeavor  to  follow  the  lines 
endorsed  by  leading  educators,  we  have,  with  several  back- 
ward boys  in  the  Home,  given  them  the  special  training  for 
learning  speech  and  language,  and  then  advised  industrial 
training  among  the  hearing,  instead  of  sending  them  to 
ordinary  schools,  which  is  our  general  custom.  The  in- 
dustrial results  have  been  as  successful  as  with  the  children 
who  are  not  mentally  backward  and  the  pupils'  mental  de- 
ficiencies have  been  lessened.     We  train  the  hands  of  all  the 


14 

children,  however,  young,  in  accuracy,  beginning  with  folding 
their  table  bibs  evenly,  etc.  As  soon  as  they  are  at  all  old 
enough  they  go  to  the  sloyd  room  and  lay,  under  a  male 
teacher,  foundations  for  their  later  industrial  training.  In 
their  lessons  there  we  seek  to  discover  and  encourage  the 
natural  bent  of  each  individual  child. 

Physical  Training:  Neither  the  Sloyd  Teacher  nor  the 
Teacher  of  Physical  Training  at  the  Home  have  had  any 
special  training  for  teaching  the  deaf,  but  teach  just  as  they 
do  hearing  classes  in  schools. 

Sir  William  Wilde,  whose  work  on  "Aural  Surgery,"  reads 
more  like  a  novel  than  a  text-book,  pays  a  touching  tribute 
to  teachers  of  the  deaf  children.  In  his  forcible  style,  he 
^ays: 

*'For  wealth,  men  have  risked  their  salvation;  for  fame, 
men  have  periled  their  existence;  for  religion  or  enthusiasm, 
men  have  died  at  the  stake ; — the  miser  or  the  murderer  saw, 
however,  the  golden  glare  of  riches  beyond  the  gulf  of  crime; 
the  warrior  felt  already  the  laurel  on  his  brow,  and  heard  the 
shout  of  his  welcoming  country-men  as  he  sought  the  thickest 
of  the  fray; — but  to  me  it  has  always  appeared  that  the 
patient  instructor  of  the  deaf  deserved  a  reward  which  noth- 
ing earthly  could  bestow.  And  the  energy,  perseverance,  and 
philanthropy  of  those  good  women  and  men  who  have  from 
time  to  time  undertaken  in  different  countries  that  herculean 
task  of  teaching  the  eye  to  hear,  have  only  been  equalled  by 
the  eloquence  of  those  who  have  advocated  the  claims  which 
the  deaf  have  upon  all  to  whom  the  Creator  has  afforded  the 
blessing  of  speech  and  hearing." — (Wildes'  Aural  Surgery, 
Am.  Edition,  Addinell  Hewson,  1853.) 


fi.m%h  irifiif  ■.-«»*..<-.  »..^ . 


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